LONG BLOG

Welcome to another edition of Dtoid Community Discusses! I hope everyone had a good weekend....I'm currently at the airport with my brother, Elem08, as we wait for the plane that takes me away from Easter fun and back to work :(. So I thought what better way to spend this hour long wait for the plane than by putting a DCD together!

Did you guys here the most recent Podtoid? Rev and the gang basically went all MST3K on one of the most epic videogame movies, Street Fighter. (Its an awesome show, and would LOVE to hear more like it!....maybe a Dtoid Science Theater 3K?) Anyway, I decided that this weeks topic would be videogame movies. Since videogames started becoming more and more mainstream, Hollywood has tried to capitalize on this new medium, to horrible results. Here is the quesion I posed to the panel!

"It's no surprise that the success of videogames has caused Hollywood to try to capitalize on them, and try to make Box Office bucks adapting video games to the big screen. From a Hollywood standpoint its almost a no-brainer, the story, background, and characters are highly laid out already, so all it takes is a big budget, some CGI, and BAM!- the millions of gamers will come out and see the movies, making tons of money for the studios!

Sadly many things have gone wrong in videogame adaptations. Namely, they suck. Most recently, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li did HORRIBLY and for the longest time had a 1% on Rotten Tomatoes. Other movies that did relatively ok at the Box Office just demolished the source material and made gamers completely dissatisfied.

What will it take to make a good videogame movie? What are some of the best/worst ones you've seen? Will the fact that game companies Capcom getting involved with the movies help or hinder them?"

This weeks panel comprised of a couple of statements from Wexx, Mid3vol, Suff0cat, and Bleach Boy. Read on to see what we had to say!

Suff0cat requested this picture......his love of Paramore knows no bounds.

Wexx

Well, the first Video game inspired — if we want to call it that — movie that I saw was Super Mario Bros., and we all know how terrible that was. I don't remember it that well, as I wasn't old enough to remember it when it came out, so I'll probably reference more modern movies for the rest of the panel. But the things I do remember about the Mario movie were all just...really weird. I think I might not torrent it so I can see it again and refresh(?) my memory.

As for how I feel about the more modern movies, like the Resident Evil and Silent Hill movies, I feel that most of them stand pretty well on their own. For example, other than Pyramid Head appearing in the Silent Hill movie I felt that it held up pretty well on its own, as the Silent Hill games don't really have an overarching plot, other than the fact that most of the protagonists were kinda-sorta related, and the fact that they were all set in the same town. They pretty much nailed the setting, and the pacing was pretty good as well.

I've never seen an Uwe Boll film.

Suff0cat

Uwe Boll is the greatest film maker ever! Discuss

Tactix

Hahaha, Suff…Have you guys seen Uwe Boll movies? I have actually stayed away from them ALL so I don’t even know how bad they are....why are they so bad?

Suff0cat

Whoa whoa, you've never seen a Uwe Boll movie?! Dude you are missing out. Between the Z-List casts, his complete inability to tell a coherant story, and the gratuitous sex scenes for the sake of having sex scenes. Cinema at it's finest.

Mid3vol

Have you guys seen Far Cry the movie? I highly recommend you watching it with friends on a drunk night. Its really bad acting, but it's like, awesomely bad. There is a guy who delivers food to the island who gets caught up in the mess and adds a comedic factor to everything.

Tactix

It seems like I’ll have to watch one of these Uwe Boll movies after all. :P

Anyway, back in the day I liked the Super Mario movie, but I agree...it was just really weird. I remember thinking, "Wait! Koopa isn't a person! Goombas aren't really big people with small heads!" I do kinda like that the movie made the world their "own" and turned Mushroom Kingdom into this gritty, New York style world, but then the question comes of how far away can a movie be from the source material and still be considered a video game movie.

For more modern movies, I actually really enjoyed Silent Hill....I feel like that movie captured the feel of the games very well and also had lots of iconic scenes from the games that I remember really freaked me out. It was cool to see these moments captured on the big screen. Just dont get me started on Resident Evil...I mean the first movie was entertaining and all, but as IRC knows, I have a deep-rooted hatred for Milla Jovovich/Alice.

Whore.

Wexx

But... she was so awesome when there were all of those clones of her naked in those tubes!

I really didn't like the Resident Evil Movies. I watched the first 2, and then I was bribed to go see the third one (someone paid for me), and I just lost it when she had the psychic powers bullshit. I really hope they aren't making another one, even though they left it open for YET ANOTHER sequel, which just makes it obvious that these movies are just there to milk cash out of people based on the fact that they like the franchise. As long as this crap is funding more good games (doubtful), I don't care, but they're raping the stuff I love, and I want it to stop.

Tactix

For the sake of this discussion I saw "Postal". I really can't say it was THAT bad, but if that movie was the best he had to offer, that’s kinda sad.

Anyway, Suff, Bleach Boy and I were talking this weekend about how our favorite videogame movie was Mortal Kombat. Besides the fact that it had a wicked awesome song (MORTAL KOOOOOOOMBAT!!!), there was a pretty cohesive story, and lots of fan service. (People using their actual moves in the movie, like Johnny Cage's Punch-in-the-nuts)

You guys remember Mortal Kombat? How'd you feel about it versus Street Fighter?

Bleach Boy

I think Postal is a great cult film. It didn't try and take it self seriously at all and in the end I believe it paid off.

I like Mortal Kombat so much because out of all of the video games movies I have seen, it is the most faithful adaptation. All of the costumes are perfect and the story was alright enough to keep me entertained. As for Street Fighter though, I find it great because it is so bad. The concept of the story worked, but it was very poorly executed and the dialogue was atrocious as well.

Wexx

To be completely honest though, I'm not really a big fan of video game movies, at least ones that we've been seeing lately. If they're supplemental to the story line, like the Dead Space movie (haven't seen it), then I'm fine with it. Movies that are just using the setting and plot of the games and attempting to make a movie out of it just feel cheap and not as immersive as the games to me (save Silent Hill, kinda). Sure, most of the scenes that they use in the movies are cut scenes anyway, but I'd still like to have the control over the pacing of the action sequences.

Now, on the subject of fighting game movies: I only saw bits and pieces of these when I was a kid, so my memory of them isn't that great (I think I might rent Street Fighter at least, before I listen to the episode of Podtoid). I'm fine with the fighting game movies, as the story in fighting games generally isn't presented too well in the games. The player typically has to turn to other mediums to get it, such as the instruction manual, a fan site/forum, comic books, or in the case of Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter, the movies (however loosely based on the plot they are). It's cool to see something visualized into a film cross-medium, like Watchmen, but there are a lot of movies that just shouldn't exist, like the Bloodrayne movie.

For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday

Tactix

As far as the future of videogames are concerned, it seems like some game companies, such as Capcom, have interest in getting more involved with this side of the entertainment by having a greater say in the process. Do you guys think this is ultimately a good idea? Sure the companies will know more about the characters and storylines, but will this just turn out to be an example of “too many cooks in the kitchen”?

Wexx

For the fans of the stories in the games, I think the game developers taking more control over the films is a great idea. I don't think any respectable studio that wants their game to be well represented in a film would hire Uwe Boll to direct it (unless... you know, they want that). I'd like for more game movies to tie in with the plots of the games better, or at least make sense when looked at in comparison to the games.

The bad ones are entertaining, to an extent though. If the developers don't care about how people that don't keep up with games see their product, then that's great, bring on the Postals, and the Far Cry’s.

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I hope you've enjoyed this week's edition of DCD! As always, if you'd like to get on the list of panel members, send me an email at tactixpimp at gmail.com! Otherwise, feel free to continue the discussion below in the comments! What do you think of videogame movies? Are you excited for the prospect of any of them (such as the recently announced Shadow of the Colossus one)?

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About Jesse Cortezone of us since 4:34 AM on 01.13.2007

Myself:

I am a Ph. D. chemist from the University of California, Berkeley. I have been playing videogames since as long as I can remember! My past favorite games include Secret of Mana, TMNT: Turtles in Time, the Resident Evil series (Jill is SUCH as master of unlocking), FFVII, Smash Bros Melee, and many others.

I've definitely gone through phases in my gaming "career". I used to LOVE fighting games in the time of Tekken Tag and Marvel vs Capcom II (my favorite fighting game), but now I find myself drawn to the more story driven games, and very recently, the music games....:)

But....fighting games are making a comeback! SFIV! MvC3! BlazBlue! Beware everyone, Tactix has put a quarter on the screen and is challenging you for battle!

It was mere chance that brought me to Destructoid back in early 2007, and through it all I've stayed because of the great writing staff, a community that cares, and lots of new internet and IRL friends. Destructoid has changed my life. True story.

If you live in the SF Bay Area, check out the DtoidSanFrancisco C-blog and join the Google Group!